Eco Sensitive Gardens

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rethink ! Our habitat forms part of the greater natural habitat necessary for a balanced functioning ecosystem. The food we eat, water we drink air we breathe, the natural beauty that gives us peace of mind is under threat. Every household has a role to play to protect our environment for the sake of our health, indeed, our survival. Style Council Exterior Designers welcome clients, homeowners, property developers, nature conservationists and government in a collaborative effort to preserve and restore natural habitats for migrating birds, animals and insects. Read further for a few things you could consider implementing in your personal space. Contact Quentin +27(0)83 600 1869 for a consultation.

Don’t be a neat freak
Garden debris – dead leaves, plant stems and the like – provide all sorts of benefits for wildlife, from the ladybirds that overwinter in hollow stems to the birds who gather this material for their nests. One great way to incorporate dead material into your garden is what’s known as a “dead hedge

Build a pond
A stretch of water – even a puddle a few centimetres deep made from an upturned dustbin lid – will entice plenty of wildlife into your garden, from dragonflies and bats to frogs. But don’t add goldfish – they eat smaller animals and encourage algal blooms.

Choose plants for pollinators
Many plants bred in the past few years have done pollinating insects no favours: the fashion for elaborate double flowers that don’t allow bees access to pollen and nectar is a real blow to our falling pollinator population. But a resurgence in pollinator-friendly blooms is well under way.

Give birds a place to stay
It’s easy to buy (or build) nest boxes suitable for almost every garden bird imaginable.

And don’t forget the insects
They’re aren’t as photogenic as birds, but without insects none of your fruit trees will be pollinated and the birds will have nothing to feed on. ,Think about creating a wildlife stack using old wooden pallets, roof tiles, scavenged bricks, bamboo canes and stones. You can make a surprisingly attractive garden feature this way . And if you want to keep the insect population healthy, garden organically, avoiding the use of synthetic chemical pesticides and weedkillers which have been linked to pollinator decline.

The Cape Floristic Region has a high proportion of unique and endangered species, and as a result is considered a global biodiversity hot spot. The City of Cape Town presents a difficult challenge for biodiversity conservation among cities within South Africa, and possibly globally, as the urban footprint coincides with many unique vegetation types and habitats.

Of the 21 national vegetation types in South Africa that have been assigned the highest conservation status of Critically Endangered, ten occur within the city. Of these, three occur nowhere else but within the City’s boundary. A further six threatened vegetation types occur in the city. The Cape Town lowlands (Cape Flats) is an area that to date has been under-conserved and has experienced massive urban sprawl dating from planning policies in the apartheid era. This area alone supports more than 1460 different plant species of which 203 species are threatened with extinction and five are globally extinct in the wild.

We need to conserve biodiversity, not only for its own sake and for future generations, but because intact natural habitats offer many benefits to humankind, including an improved quality of life and health through the many ecosystem goods and services they provide. Well-managed natural areas offer recreational and educational as well as sustainable harvesting and nature-based tourism opportunities, and are known to enhance adjacent property values. In Cape Town, tourism is one of the most important industries in promoting employment opportunities.

The Style Council Exterior Design Team

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